SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.

United States coach Bob Bradley has called up 12 foreign-based players into his 23-man squad for next month's Gold Cup.

The U.S., defending Gold Cup champions and hosts of the 12-team CONCACAF tournament which begins on June 6, will warm up with a friendly against China in San Jose on June 2 before its first group B match against Guatemala in Carson, California five days later.http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=433347&cc=5901

If I were pulling for England, I'd be all for this. Regardless of tactics or positioning, Beckham is one of the few England players who gives 100% in every match and is able to maintain focus for 90 minutes. That alone is worth loads when it comes to England. -Sanford

Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, has been in discussions with Atlético Madrid about selling José Antonio Reyes. The Spanish club tried to sign the forward last summer, but he chose to go to Real Madrid on loan for the season. Real have not expressed an interest in making it a permanent transfer and Wenger has been touting Reyes to several other clubs because the forward does not want to return to London.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article1837930.ece

Juan Pablo Angel had two goals and an assist to lead the undermanned New York Red Bulls to a record-setting 3-0 win over the Chicago Fire on Thursday night. Teenage star Jozy Altidore also scored for the Red Bulls (5-1-2), who set an MLS record for the quickest two goals at the start of a game. And Altidore's goal -- which came just 55 seconds into the match -- was the fastest goal in franchise history.http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report?id=215251&cc=5901

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Julio Baptista will be handed his walking papers by Arsenal. It's unclear what this means for the status of Jose Antonio Reyes, who's largely disappointed after making his long complained about dream move to Real. He doesn't want to come back to England and Real don't want him. I'm sad that the Baptista loan turned out this way as I thought he'd do well in England. Unlike many continental imports his game was based as much on power as finesse and I presumed he'd fit right in to the English style (albeit Arsenal's more elegant take). Unfortunately it was not to be; while he never looked overawed and certainly seemed up to the challenge he just looked short of quality. Had he been able to do something with the chances he was given we may have seen a different outcome in the Carling Cup final, the FA Cup and the Champions League. My lasting memory of him will be taking a beautiful ball in stride, missing it completely and falling on his cultured Brazilian ass.

I saw this photo in the Guilin airport and immediately some sort of bell went off in my head. "Ronaldo and lozenge and China...hmmm." Didn't he sue someone about that?" Turns out he did indeed. Back in January.

The ads are still up in this southern city and they're everywhere.

From Time Magazine's China Blog:The lozenge maker invited him to a banquet in 2003 (and paid him a handsome sum for him to attend), but apparently never mentioned how all of the pictures taken that night would be used. (Danwei smelled foul play back in November 2003 when the ads first appeared.) But Ronaldo, alas, only learned about his purloined visage when another Chinese company invited him to become its spokesman and asked him to terminate his relationship with Golden Throat.

So I've been gone for a while. I had a fabulous opportunity to get to China for a month and I jumped at it. The wife was over there working for three months and we travelled for her final three weeks. Sadly, because of a scheduling SNAFU, we were uable to attend a match in Beijing or in Shanghai. I was pretty bummed but you have to look at the brightside when these things happen. We had great days doing other things -- they just didn't involve seeing any Chinese football. I was able to catch Milan's distruction of ManU on the TV in our Shanghai hotel room, however. Now that was impressive, and terribly enjoyable. It was a great hotel (we splurged) and I was kicked back on our bed in a terrycloth robe with a cold beer for the match. Our room even had a famous toilet (above). Anyway, I couldn't see the final since I was flying at the time, but after watching Milan in action I didn't give Liverpool a chance.

I also managed to catch some of the relegation matches in the EPL but the minutes I saw involving Charlton and Wigan were quite dour. Ditto as expected the Chelsea/ManU anti-climatic league match that I saw most of at my Uncle's place in Thailand.

I was in Xi'an for the FA Cup final and managed to stay awake until extra time but beyond that I had no patience. I'm pleased that I decided to hit the sack at after midnight instead of staying up for another 25 minutes simply to see Drogba score. In the end, ManU get the title and Chelsea get the FA and League Cups. Jose and Roman must be pretty damn upset. And that makes me quite pleased. I watched at a pleasant guesthouse called 7 Sages, but I seemed to be the only person interested in the proceedings. Perhaps the real punters were at other bars. I've got a photo somewhere -- once things are sorted I'll post.

Over in Spain, it would seem that Barcelona are falling apart and Real Madrid are now in the catbird seat. How this is possible I have no idea, but I suppose they've been the best of the worst. The UEFA Cup runs of the other upper-tier Spanish teams have taken their toll, I suppose.

And it was nice to see Stuttgart claim the Bundesliga, although I feel for the Shalke fans. They do have to live in Gelsinkirchen, after all.

Oh, and I watched Goal! on the flight home. What a dreadful film! I would say, however, that Shearer, Zidane and Raul should join Becks in Hollywood because their acting is sensational.

A special thanks to Alec and Bobbie for keeping things up and running in my absence. Hopefully over the summer we can streamline things a bit and increase commentary to go with the links. Now we can look forward to a summer of transfer rumors, MLS, regional competitions for the US National Team, and other various fun topics of discussion.

AC Milan 2 - 1 Liverpool:This time there was to be no miracle escape and no sixth European Cup. Even though Dirk Kuyt's last-minute header raised the prospect of a comeback equally as memorable as the one Liverpool produced in Istanbul two years ago, ultimately only a Greek tragedy was awaiting Rafael Benitez as his side fell victim to AC Milan's Champions League revenge mission in Athens' Olympic Stadium.